Truro Men’s Buckfast Retreat

Some retreatants with Fr Abbot David and Bro Prior Daniel 

The annual Truro Men’s Retreat at Buckfast Abbey was finally held last weekend at the start of Advent. Although in its twelfth year, the 2020 Retreat was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, and was only able to take place this year for a limited number, thanks to some late organisation and the tolerance of our Guestmaster, Bro Prior Daniel who kindly accommodated us at short notice.

The Truro Men’s Retreats are notable and privileged for the way we mark the ‘hours’ in traditional prayer with the monks, who also share with us their meals and their monastery and access to their private cloistered areas. 

Arriving in cold dark and wet and windy conditions, retreatants went straight into Vespers with the monks. It is a tribute to both the spiritual richness of the experience and the warm hospitality of the monks that the unanimous first reaction of retreatants was “it feels like coming home!”